The Wishing Tree - Book Two [Completed]

Corruption - Part 38

Mason can't stop looking at the sky as we travel back towards the tree. We hadn't asked whether Grayson knew where the Journeyer bodies were buried, but it makes sense that he was there doing more than looking for my sequence when he dug the holes and burned the tree. We don't know what Grayson is doing right now if he's still hunting us if he's waiting at the tree or if he's off building an army. Clara's and Mason's easy comradery is gone, and I miss their banter. She barely speaks to me, either. She seems lost in herself.

Rocco and Riven have spent most of the time talking to each other, which has left me far too much time to think about how different my own life would have been had the keepers not interfered. It's no wonder I never got along with my Siren parents; they weren't really my parents. My Journeyer nature and adaptability must have made it easier for me to pretend to be a Siren, but it explains why I never felt comfortable in my own skin. 

I wonder when Ryan knew that something wasn't right with me and if that made it easier or harder to fall in love with me. I rub my scar absentmindedly and think about Ryan on the Third Realm trying to fend off a revolution while Mason and I are down here trying to survive. Meanwhile, the Fourth Realm gets to kick back and watch the chaos unfold around them, untouched. I look over at Mason's face, deep in thought; power doesn't seem to have helped him all that much.

Does absolute power always corrupt people? Will Ryan and I end up corrupted at some point?

"Hey, Rocco?" I call out to him. I'd been walking beside Mason, but I fall back, letting Riven walk with Mason, Clara in the middle and Rocco and I now pull up the rear.

His dark eyebrows are pulled together in a silent question as we fall into step together. "What's the problem?" he asks. He seems much more adaptable to silence than Riven, who can't help keeping up a steady stream of conversation. I know it sometimes annoys Mason, but I find the two of them comforting. If they were both rivers, Rocco would be deep with a strong current, and Riven would be the babbling rapids, always moving to the next great thing.

"What do you think stops a person from being corrupted by power?"

He gives me a half smile and raises his eyebrows. "Too much time on your hands to think?"

I shrug. "I'm going to be getting so much power if I make it back to the Third Realm. Ryan's been groomed for it, but me? I have no idea if I'll be able to handle it. I grew up with selfish, stubborn parents, and there's a part of me that defaults to that attitude more often than I'd like."

He looks up at the sky, mimicking Mason's earlier searching gaze. We're sticking close to any tree line we can so we can duck off the path if needed. He takes a while to answer, but finally, he says, "I think you've developed a pretty strong sense of what's right and wrong. I don't know if you were suited to be a ruler before. I didn't know you then. But, now? I would be proud to call you Queen. I think you have to be able to acknowledge that power is seductive, dangerous and can be used for great good or great evil." He meets my gaze and his brown eyes are deep pools of intelligence. Whatever soul is in there, it's a good one.

Rocco glances away and continues, "What's the phrase? I heard Mason say it once and I liked it – History is written by the winners. I think he ended it by saying he intended to be a winner, which sort of ruined it." Rocco grins at the memory. "But, it's true. Good and evil isn't always clear. Were the keepers right to banish the Journeyers? It doesn't seem like it, given what's happened. But, what if they didn't? What if the Journeyers had started a revolution and all the realms collapsed? Would we then be judging them for not having stepped in? I don't know. I don't know. Sometimes when you go looking for answers, what you find is there aren't any easy ones; there are a choice and its consequences."